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Eagle Scout Proposes Bat Boxes For Berlin Park

BERLIN — At last week’s Berlin Town Council meeting, roosting areas for bats were approved for Stephen Decatur Park, a new town event aimed at supporting the fight against breast cancer gained the nod and it was learned a popular theatre group that first visited Berlin this fall will be returning in September.

Bats in Berlin will be able to thank Eagle Scout Peter Marx for the addition of a dozen roosting boxes to Stephen Decatur Park next month. Marx told the council that the boxes will help foster the area’s bat population, which should lead to better natural pest control.

“The purpose of this project is to provide roosting areas for the bats because they eat lots of mosquitos and insects and this would be more of an eco-friendly way to control the insect population,” he said.

The 12 boxes will be placed between 15 and 20 feet off the ground and will be installed either via ladder or with the use of the town’s bucket truck, which the council agreed can be lent to assist in the project. Installing the boxes will qualify Marx for acceptance as an Eagle Scout. The group requires members to perform a community project before advancing.

Marx was questioned whether bat boxes could also be installed at Henry Park. However, Marx told the council that conditions at that park won’t work.

“There aren’t very many trees there and the ones that they have there, aren’t suitable for bat boxes because a suitable tree is a tall tree that doesn’t have many branches and is out in the open so that they can get into it and all of these are shorter, close together and near people’s houses,” Marx said.

In other news, a new special event is coming to Berlin this summer.

Women Supporting Women (WSW) will be hosting a High Heel Race on June 14 to raise money and awareness for breast cancer survivors and treatment. The race will include a number of other activities where traditional gender roles are swapped. Participants will have to run a short distance in high heels, explained WSW Office Coordinator Mary Henderson, and then tackle different stations.

Men and women will run separate races, with men possibly being tasked to put on cosmetics without a mirror and women most likely having to attire themselves in a tool belt and waders.

“So it’ll be a little equal and we just want to have fun,” said Henderson.

The event is expected to last about an hour and will provide funding for WSW, which Henderson said is one of the prime resources for women and even men dealing with breast cancer on the eastern shore.

“We provide them with wigs, we have prosthetics for the breast cancer, and we have information bags that we give out to the surgeons in the area that holds so much information to these women. They use these books as their Bibles just about while they’re going through this,” she said.

The council unanimously approved the event and wished Henderson luck with the High Heel Race becoming an annual activity.

Additionally, fans of the Bard got good news when Economic and Community Development Director Michael Day confirmed that Boston-based Brown Box Theatre will return to Berlin on Sept. 13. Last fall, the group, founded by Eastern Shore native Kyler Taustin, performed Romeo and Juliet in Berlin. Day described the event as one of the most popular outdoor shows the town has seen.

“It was probably one of the most enchanting nights we’ve had, the weather was perfect, professional actors in this production,” he told the council.

This year the group will be performing A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream and like last year it will be free to the public.